Funding cuts leave sexual assault help agency at a crossroads

Tuesday

Jul 2, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 2, 2013 at 6:12 PM

Natalie Allison Janicello / Times-News

Reports of sexual assault this year in Alamance County have already exceeded numbers from last year. But in light of increasing demands for victim services, CrossRoads sexual assault response and resource center is facing decreased funds, and in turn, a limited ability to help adults and children in need of counsel.

Now in its 37th year, CrossRoads has lost $200,000 in federal funding from cuts related to government sequestration. The loss of that money, which comes from the Victims of Crime Act and is awarded through the Governor’s Crime Commission, forced the organization to cut two of its staff members and decrease the number of medical examinations it can offer to juvenile victims.

Deana Joy, director of CrossRoads, said without additional money, the organization can’t operate at its current level for long.

“CrossRoads can’t survive with this number of staff for more than a year,” Joy said.

Last year, CrossRoads helped 529 children who were victims of sexual assault. This year, it has already served 701 children — approximately the equivalent of the number of students in any one of the local middle schools — and another 124 adults — or two to three public school buses filled with people, Joy said.

The organization now employs seven full-time staff members and two part-time doctors, in addition to 32 volunteers who remain on-call for CrossRoads’ 24-hour crisis line. This year, Joy had to let go the organization’s education and prevention coordinator, in addition to one of its three direct service staff members, referred to as an advocate.

“The advocates are like the hub of a wheel,” Joy said.

From the moment a child or adult discloses an incident of sexual assault, one of the organization’s advocates begin helping the victim and his or her family navigate the law enforcement, legal and medical system to ensure necessary steps are taken — in addition to providing counseling services to help the victims heal.

One of the major hurdles the organization has faced in raising funds and support is its inability to share with the community information about the victims it helps.

“We can’t parade people around town to discuss how CrossRoads had impacted them,” Joy said. “It’s like a club nobody wants to be a member of. Nobody wants to be one of these victims.”

But people might be surprised to know the range of people CrossRoads helps, she said. The majority of the organization’s clients are white — about 60 percent — with 30 percent being black and 10 percent Hispanic. And as far as where the victims are coming from across the county, in each town and city, “per capita, the percentage is pretty even,” Joy said.

“It’s easy to put it in a box and say, ‘If I live over here, this won’t happen to me or my child,’” she said. “But these people are your friends, your neighbors — they sit on the pews at church and are the people you work with and your kids play with.”

Becky Dixon, a lieutenant at the Gibsonville Police Department, has been working to garner support for CrossRoads since learning the organization’s funding was cut.

In addition to sitting in on weekly team meetings for the organization with other representatives from agencies around the county, Dixon said she relies on CrossRoads for all of the sexual assault cases she deals with, as do the rest of the law enforcement agencies in Alamance County.

She said that because police officers must focus on conducting investigations and working with suspects to find out the facts, CrossRoads is crucial for tending to the victims.

“Their role is to concentrate on the victim,” Dixon said. “It is extremely important to law enforcement that the victim gets help, and we can’t provide that. It’s not that we don’t want to, but that’s not our role.”

Dixon and Lt. A.J. Inman have begun helping promote a benefit motorcycle ride for the organization, planned for September 28 at Holly Hill Mall.

In addition to holding a couple major and a several small annual fundraisers, Joy said CrossRoads is beginning to reach out to the faith-based community for funding — and to keep churches from being places victims are afraid of attending.

But regardless of whether the organization’s federal funding comes through, Joy said the organization is in need of the community’s help.

“Government funding is going to become more and more limited,” Joy said. “The community has to step up and take care of itself as it once did. I believe all of us are capable of that.”